


Echos of What Could Be

by Arewegroot



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Not Beta Read, One-Sided Attraction, Prophetic Visions, Team Minato-centric, Time Travel, Visions in dreams, mentions of team 7, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-03-04 10:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13362258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arewegroot/pseuds/Arewegroot
Summary: Kakashi has been having dreams of his whole team dying, one by one, until he was left totally alone. Other nights he dreams of three small genin children who he has such a strong urge to protect, even at the cost of his own life, and gut wrenching guilt because he had failed them just like he had for the others...But Kakashi doesn't know these kids. He's never had his own genin team, he's only 11 (not even a jonin yet), and the rest of Team 7 is very much alive.





	1. The Oracle of Delphi

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Hidden Prodigy](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/350763) by Applepie. 



> Hey there! So I uh...I have a problem guys. I'm a sucker for time traveling fics, ESPECIALLY, if it's Kakashi going back in time and fixing things. Of course this isn't the fic where Kakshi actually time travels into the past, it's more where he has these dream like visions of the past. 
> 
> I should also mention that in this fic Kakashi is two years younger than his generation. So when Kakashi graduated the academy at 6 Obito and Rin were 8. Kakashi became a chunin when he was 7 and was teamed up with the rest of Team 7 a year later. In canon Kakashi age of when he graduated and became chunin is really confusing so I'm basing this on my own headcanons. 
> 
> Ships may be added later. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for clicking on this and I hope you enjoy!

Kakashi woke up gasping for breath as tears flowed from his wide eyes. He looked around in a panic, his throat starting to hurt as ugly, body shaking sobs come out of his mouth. Kakashi hugged himself in a pathetic attempt to stop himself from shaking.

His chest started to hurt from how hard he was crying and the fact that little moments of the nightmare replayed in his mind. He could still remember a dead Rin and his hand straight through her chest (the feeling of her dying heart pulse in his hand. _Once, twice…then nothing_ ), the feeling of total hopelessness and unbearable sadness as the Fourth ( _Minato-sensei_ ) was declared dead, and the soul crushing guilt he felt towards a half dead Obito smiling up at him before his face twisted into a bitter, angry face of a man he couldn’t recognize. He remembered his genin team and how he had failed them, failed them just like every other team he had ever had.

No...Kakashi...Kakashi has never lead a genin team before; he didn’t even want to be a Jonin instructor!

He didn’t know these kids, but he couldn’t ignore the warm and protective feeling when the image of those same three kids, young and happy (before he messed it all up, like everything else he had touched. He just keeps messing things up), smiled up at him (well the Uchiha boy’s smile was small but noticeable and he just somehow _knew_ that he could count that as a win).

_“Kakashi-Sensei!”_

It felt like hours before Kakashi’s body stopped shaking, his sobs having turned into hiccups. His arms fell to his sides, having finally let go of himself, as he noticed the rays of sunlight that streamed from his window. Kakashi was pretty sure it had still been dark when he had woken up.

Kakashi crawled out of bed and got himself dressed even if his eyes stung and his head hurt from the lack of sleep. With a quick tug at his hitai-ate to make sure it was on right, he walked out his front door, locked it, and made his way towards Team Minato’s unofficial training grounds.

* * *

 The rules were something that Kakashi followed religiously (even if he didn’t believe in all of them). It was something that separated him from his peers and something he tried to use to prove himself to the village that still couldn’t differentiate him from a shadow he just _couldn’t get rid of_. So Kakashi found it weird that he couldn’t help but take his time getting to the training grounds.

He didn’t mind as much as he would have yesterday, even though he had an instinctual feeling that he was already an hour late to meeting with the team.

“Obito probably beat me there,” Kakashi said to himself, as he strolled through the already busy Konoha market. Children who were too young to start school yet were running around their mother’s legs, who were too busy trying to convince the vender to lower down their prices.

Kakashi wanted to stay longer, curious to see how far he could push this before Minato started to think he was dead, but the villagers started to notice him, with his silver hair and the headband that branded him as one of the leaf’s shinobi; the son of the disgraced white fang.

All around him there were angry eyes glaring at him with bitter words that stung deep. The easy and almost lazy mood he was feeling dispersed and was replaced with the cold numbing feeling he trained so hard to have.  

He easily maneuvered himself around the busy crowd and only started to quicken his speed when he was finally out of the market place. It only took him a couple of minutes to get to the training ground where he saw a worried looking Minato-sensei and Rin trying to calm down a fuming Uchiha.

“Who does that bastard think he is—”

“Morning,” Kakashi said, nonchalantly. He felt his body move on its own as he shifted his weight to one knee, felt his shoulders slouch, and raised a hand in greeting. “Sorry I’m late.”

Minato-sensei smiled kindly at him, obvious relief on his face. “It’s fine Kaka—”

“What!” Obito screeched in anger, turning around to look at his sensei. “No, it’s not! He’s always preaching about being on time and about following the rules and then he doesn’t even follow them! It’s totally _not_ okay sensei!”

The sounds of Minato-sensei trying to calm the Uchiha boy started to fade out, until all Kakashi could hear was an uncomfortable ringing, but that was the least of Kakashi’s worries. It felt like Kakashi was seeing double; one second Minato was standing in front of him patiently letting Obito voice out his frustrations and then the next he was in the Hokage’s robes, bloody and his usual bight blue eyes, dead and dull. Obito changed from a thirteen-year-old to an older looking man with a heavily scared face and a look of pure hatred aimed right at Kakashi. His body started to shake again, and he couldn’t breathe.

_He couldn’t breathe._

He didn’t hear his name being called but he felt someone grab his face and forced him to look away from Obito and Minato. It took him a while to register who it was but when he did he was met with a worried looking Rin. Her mouth kept moving but nothing seemed to come out. There was a positive chance that she had been saying his name but Kakashi was too focused on the fact that _his arm was in her chest._

_Oh god, oh god, oh god. He promised! He promised he would protect her. Oh god, oh god, Rin…Rin he’s so sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry—_

Kakashi hadn’t realized that he was saying that out loud until a harsh slap caused his head to snap to the side. He clung to the stinging pain and how his cheek pulsed. It helped him remember that he was awake, and what he thought he saw was all just a dream (right?).

“Kakashi,” He heard Minato-sensei say (Rin mustn’t have had the courage to have done it herself). Kakashi slowly turned his head to meet Minato’s eyes. The young sensei had moved from his original spot to where he was now kneeling in front of his youngest student. Minato lightly squeezed Kakashi’s shoulder, something he always did whenever he was worried about him. Behind Minato, Kakashi could see his teammates watching the two of them with their own looks of concern. “Kakashi, are you alright? What’s wrong?”

Kakashi stayed quiet as he let his eyes scan his team, the three people he begrudgingly let himself care about (of course he would never say that to their faces), who looked like they were full of worry but, most importantly, looked very much _alive_.

“I’m fine,” He finally said. His voice sounding soft and vulnerable, much to Kakashi’s dismay. “I just…I didn’t get enough sleep last night. Nightmares.”

“Well that explains why you look like the walking dead,” Obito said, as tactful as ever.

“Thanks,” Kakashi deadpanned.

Rin stepped closer to Kakashi and Minato-sensei after she had lightly slapped Obito’s arm. “Kakshi-kun maybe you should head home—”

“No,” Kakashi quickly cut in, sounding panicked. He tried to play it off, hoping that the others hadn’t noticed, but by the worried furrow Minato’s eyebrows did, Kakashi knew that they had. He rolled his shoulders and tried to save the tiny bit of dignity he had left. “I’m fine, there’s no reason to send me home.”

“You were just having a panic attack,” Obito reminded him slowly, giving him look that perfectly showed how unbelievably stupid he thought Kakashi was.

“Obito’s right—” Minato held up his hand stopping the irritated words he had anticipated from Kakashi. “You’re in no shape to train with the rest of the team. Besides, this will be a perfect chance for Rin to practice her tiajutsu with Obito. You can stay and observe and give Rin some pointers along with me.”

Minato didn’t ask why Kakashi didn’t want to go home but was still giving him an excuse to stick around. Kakashi snuffed out that warmth that started to grow in his chest. That warm feeling, he only ever remembered having back when he was younger (when his dad was alive).

“Okay.”

Minato smiled. “Alright, you can go and watch from under that tree over there. I’ll join you when I’m done giving them the rules for their spar.

Kakashi nodded before he slipped away from Minato’s hold and went to sit under the tree. The second his butt touched the ground he felt the fatigue and the Lack-of-Sleep induced headache come back with a new vigor. Kakashi groaned and closed his eyes, the brightness of the day suddenly being too much for him to handle. In the background he could hear Minato setting the limits to the spar and giving Rin a couple of last encouragements. It mixed well with the soft rustle of the leaves as a lazy breeze started to settle in Konoha. It was peaceful.

 

When Minato turned around to check on his youngest student he was surprised to see Kakashi, with his head leaned back against the tree, fast asleep. The blonde smiled fondly at sleeping boy before he turned back to moderate the spar between his other two cute students.

“Don’t be afraid Rin! Trust yourself!"

* * *

 

Kakashi was coming in and out of consciousness as he heard three weirdly familiar voices he’s never heard before, speak over him.

 “He’s asleep,” He heard one of the voices say, it sounded bored and like the speaker was trying, _really_ , hard not to show any emotion. He heard an unhappy _hmph_ come from the left of him, followed by a girl saying, “Of course he is.”

“Hehe…let’s try to see what’s under the mask, dattebayo” The third voice sounded like what you expected the sun to sound like if it had a voice; loud, bright, and obnoxious. “You know, since we didn’t get to see it last time we tried.”

“Obito don’t!” He heard as he quickly grabbed his assailant’s wrist, stopping the hand that had only been a couple of inches away from his mask. A panicked squeak came out from Obito’s mouth

  _Wait_ , Kakashi thought. _Obito?_ Kakashi finally opened his eyes to see the guilty looking black eyes of his team mate, instead of the bright blue eyes he had expected. He doesn’t know why he felt disappointed.

“What are you doing?” Kakashi glared up at his male teammate, but, unlike the other times this has happened, his tone held no venom.

“Nothing! You just uh…had a fly on your face,” Obito said, his cheeks red. He tried not to meet the younger boy’s eyes. “So, I was just trying to shoo it away.”

_Mmhmm_ , _sure_ , Kakashi thought to himself. He didn’t believe the idiot for a second, and he was sure that Obito knew that, but he let go of the Uchiha’s wrist. He didn’t feel like arguing with him today.

“How are you feeling Kakashi?” Minato-sensei stood behind Rin, that fond smile on his face he always seemed to have whenever he was around his students.

“I feel alright,” Kakashi said, rolling his head to get the kink in his neck.

“Are you sure?” Rin asked, her tone soft and careful as if anything she said could set him off. He didn’t like it. Kakashi turned to give the brown haired kinochi a glare, not understanding why she was talking to him like that.

“Yes. I’m sure, why—” That’s when he remembered. He remembered the nightmares, how his teammates shifted right in front of him, and how he had broken down in front of them. They had seen him cry and lose control of his emotions. Kakashi had done the very thing that he had been reprimanding Obito for, for years now. 

“Yes, I’m fine,” Kakashi said, less harshly this time. “…Thank you.”

The other three didn’t seem to believe him as they looked him over, as if expecting him to lose his mind again. They clear had a million questions running through their heads. They wanted to ask him why he had cried and apologized to Rin about some horrible thing he had done to her, even if the girl couldn’t remember what exactly _it_ was, but they didn’t and Kakashi had never felt so grateful towards them.

“You’re welcome, Kakashi-kun. I’m glad.” Rin said. A weird sense of nostalgia (he ignored the  _soul crushing guilt_ that came along with it) coursed through Kakashi’s body when a small smile tugged at Rin’s lips. 

 “Well you three should be heading home,” Minato said after the interaction between Kakashi and Rin was over.

With a happy cheer Obito turned on his heel and started to run back to the village, yelling a goodbye over his shoulder and something about his grandmother making his favorite tonight. Rin followed, saying a quiet farewell to the remaining members of her team, blushing a little when she looked at the silver haired boy. Kakashi watched them leave, a sense of fear went through his body. He didn’t know why but he was afraid that if he looked away, they would disappear, as if they had just been a figment of his imagination this whole time.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt the steady warmth of Minato-sensei’s hand land on his shoulder. Kakashi tore his eyes away from his teammates to look up to meet a pair of bright blue ones.

_Naruto._

“Come on, I’ll walk you home Kakashi.”

* * *

 His mother had been a civilian. She had been a calm but confident woman who had been rescued from a destroyed village and brought to one of Konoha’s orphanages. His father had met her when she had been working in some grocery store. They had dated for a year or two before they got married but had difficulty getting pregnant. They both had been so happy when they found out about Kakashi. She died during childbirth.

Kakashi never met his mother. All he knew about her was what he had heard in the stories Jiraiya and his father had told him.

His father had obviously missed her but Kakashi never knew how to feel about her. She was only a stranger to him, a stranger he only heard about in fairytales.

It was a completely different story with his father. Sakumo had meant the world to Kakashi. He had been everything Kakashi had wanted to be once. If he thought hard enough (and he never did because he was trying so hard to pretend like he never existed) Kakashi could probably still hear the low rumble of his voice whenever he said his name, or how a comfortable and safe feeling came over him, the same feeling one gets when they believe their blanket is going to protect them from whatever is under the bed, whenever his dad would come and pick him up from the park.

He always tried not to think about his father very often, because it reminded him of how alone he was now.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Minato asked. The two of them were walking the path Kakashi usually used to get home. It was taking a bit longer than usual since Kakashi wasn’t roof-hopping this time around.

The sun was position in the middle of the sky, a telling that it was around lunch time, and it really looked like it. The streets were equally as busy as they had been this morning, maybe even more so, as shinobi and civilian alike rushed to their favorite restaurants. The only difference there was, compared to this morning was that none of the villagers gave him the evil eye (of course none of them bothered to look at him either, but still) and Kakashi was pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that he had Minato-sensei next to him this time. 

"Not really," Kakashi said. 

"Are you sure?" Minato asked. Usually when Kakashi told him that he was fine, Minato would drop it knowing that the boy didn't really appreciate it when others pried; of course, Kakashi had never broken down in front of him like that before either. "You know you can talk to me about anything, Kakashi." 

"I'm sure and yes, I know."

They had reached Kakashi's apartment complex, it was one of the nicer ones that mostly housed leaf shinobi. Kakashi had been saving and managing his money since his first D-rank and had been able to get his own apartment and move out of the ones the leaf village had put away for the orphans. (He would have rather chewed off his own fingers before he touched any of the money his father left him.)

"Alright," Minato trailed off as he found Kakashi up the flight of stairs to the correct floor. Kakashi had was feeling around his pouch, looking for the keys to his apartment, when Minato spoke up again. "I'm meeting with Kushina at Ichiraku's for lunch today."

"That's nice."

"You can join us," Minato said. Kakashi didn't have to turn around to know that he was smiling. "I know Kushina would be happy to see you."

“Thank you but I already have something defrosting,” He said, looking over his shoulder. He pushed the door open and let himself in the second he had managed to unlock it, and with a quick “see you next week”, he shut it closed.

Kakashi only took a couple of steps away from the door when it happened again. 

Everything in front of him changed with a loud crack, as if someone had set of a firework, and suddenly he was in a demolished forest looking down at a dead Minato-sensei and Kushina and the were covered in  _blood._

_There was so much blood._  

H _e was covered in it._

_He...he can't get it off!_

_T_ _he more he wipes at it the more he seems to be covered in it!_

_He can't get it off!_

_He can't get it off!_

_HE. CAN'T. GET. IT. OFF._

And then, just like that, it was over, he was back in his apartment. Kakashi's heart was thumping loudly against his chest, his head felt light headed, and Kakashi was sure he was minutes from passing out; but as if his body had decided on its own he found himself rushing back towards his door and frantically looking for his teacher. He had only taken a couple of steps away from Kakashi’s door.

“Minato-sensei!” Kakashi yelled, trying and successfully getting the jonin’s attention. Kakashi tried to rein in his panic and the tears that were threatening to pour out because _Minato-sensei was_ _okay. He’s right here._ “Can I…is the invitation still valid?”

The shock on the blonde’s face turned into a warm, happy smile and Kakashi just couldn’t ignore the feeling of a blanket being draped over his shoulders.

“Of course, Kakashi.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minato is worried, Kakashi isn't handling things well, Obito is confused, and Rin is tired of this shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably should have told you guys that I'm a really big perfectionist, so I write, and rewrite, and then rewrite the rewrite whenever I don't like how the chapter is coming out. So that's why it takes me so long to get a chapter out. Then I broke my arm and couldn't write so that didn't help but anyways hope you guys enjoy.

Minato—like every other Leaf shinobi—had been expected to protect the village with his life the minute he had wrapped the headband around his head, but Minato didn’t work hard to protect the village. He did everything he could to protect the little sweetshop Kushina had kissed him for the first time, his favorite tree he liked to sit under when he was trying to figure out a new seal, the training grounds where he had first tested his students. The reason he protected the village was that of a certain redhead and three kids he couldn’t but call him, but the Minato wasn’t blind.

Konoha was a ninja village and like every other ninja village, it swept its secrets under a rug and had blood on its hands. It takes and breaks children too quickly; sending them off to kill another human being before most of them even hit puberty. Minato knew that even though the village preached of it being better than its neighbors, it was always quick to turn on its own.

“I’m glad you decided to join us Kakashi,” Minato said to the stoic little boy as they walked through the village to Ichiraku’s. He was doing most of the talking. Minato technically could have teleported them to the seal he had placed on his favorite ramen stall, but he had noticed Kakashi’s shaking and his pale, scared face when he had changed his mind to join him and Kushina, so he had decided that the walk and the chilled evening air would be good for the boy. “Kushina will be glad too. She’s been asking me questions about how you’ve been.”

Minato was sixteen when he had first met Kakashi. He had only been promoted to jonin for a couple of months when Jiraiya-sensei had asked him to meet with his friend Hatake Sakumo. The legendary White Fang of Konoha had been looking for someone to tutor his five (“Five _and a half_ ,” Minato remembered a smaller Kakashi saying to him) year old son outside of the academy. Kakashi had skipped ahead two years but was still dying of boredom while in class. The only reason why Kakashi hadn’t gone through with the early graduation had been because Sakumo had desperately wanted his socially stunted son to learn how to make friends.

Minato had agreed to tutor the young boy and, unsurprisingly, became quite fond of Kakashi. Although, Minato never expected to be given another human being. After Sakumo’s death, Minato had fumbled around Kakashi, not knowing what to do. Minato hadn’t been sure if he had to change their relationship, or even if he had the _right_ to change it (Did Kakashi want him to just keep being his teacher? Did he need him to be a friend? Did he want him to try to become some sort of father figure? All three?), but before he could find out what Kakashi needed him to do, who he needs Minato to _be,_ Kakashi had graduated, legally became an ‘adult’, and had moved out of the spare room of Minato’s small apartment.

It was something Minato regretted the most and that regret just became heavier that afternoon.

“I bet she’d love to hear about how you’ve managed to get that earth jutsu down,” Minato continued to fill the silence between him and Kakashi. He didn’t mind since Kakashi had finally stopped shaking and seemed to cling to Minato’s voice to get him out of his own mind. “Kushina might be a little peeved though since it had taken her _weeks_ to get that particular jutsu down.”

“It might be because her chakra affinity is water,” Kakashi said. His voice was soft and timid, and if the jounin hadn’t been waiting for Kakashi to say something he was sure he wouldn’t have heard him. Minato’s heart warmed and the worried feeling he’d been dealing with for most of the day lessened just from hearing the boy’s voice. “The earth jutsu would have possibly clashed with her…water chakra.”

Minato smiled fondly and reached over to ruffle the boy’s hair (his heart soared when Kakashi leaned into the gesture instead of pulling away like he had expected). “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

 

Kushina had been excited to see Kakashi and took up most of the time asking about how he’s been or sharing stories about how she beat some misogynistic Iwa ninja to the ground back in her last mission. He and Kushina did most of the talking, letting Kakashi, who had been forced to sit in between them by Kushina, eat his bowl of ramen in peace. They didn’t try to stop Kakashi from falling asleep, his head cushioned on his arms where he leaned against the wooden counter after he had finished his bowl, and when they had finished eating Kushina helped Minato secure Kakashi onto his back.

“I forget how young he really is,” Kushina said as they walked home. She reached over and lightly traced the bags under Kakashi’s eyes.

Minato smiled sadly. “I think he forgets that too.”

Kakashi only stirred once on the way back to their apartment.

* * *

 He hasn’t slept in _days._

The night he had spent with Minato had slept fine, but he couldn’t stay there forever. He was a _chunin,_ he couldn’t sleep over at his Sensei’s like he was some sort of _kid,_ and he made sure to tell that to his sensei (and promptly ignored the sad fond look in the man’s eye). He’s been dealing with those weird dreams every night since then.

Kakashi had tried to do meditations and pre-sleep routines that are supposed to help prevent nightmares, but nothing had helped. He continued to wake up every midnight, drenched in sweat and close to tears. He was getting really tired of it, so Kakashi had decided to just give up on the whole idea of sleeping.

The first day had been fine. He managed to keep his eyes open and catch himself when he swayed on his feet. On the third day, Kakashi couldn’t stop moving. He had been vibrating with pent-up energy (really, he had only been tapping his finger against his thigh, he didn’t need to be acting more out of the ordinary than usual than he already had) for most of the day. He had never been so grateful to see Gai before that day. The second the words “I challenge you” left Gai’s lips Kakashi tackled him to the ground, his sudden eagerness to a challenge catching Gai off guard. At the end of the challenge, Kakashi was in the lead with his newest win and a tiny (bloody) smile on his lips as Gai ran off to do his self-imposed punishment.

Today was turning out to be a completely different story apparently. Kakashi had a steady and pulsing headache. He was having trouble remembering the simplest of things and he was sure that he was starting to hallucinate since Rin now had three arms instead of her usual two (She…did only have two arms before, right?). Not only that but today was a free-for-all spar where Obito and Rin had decided to tag team against him.

Kakashi jumped out of the way of Obito’s fireball and sped through hand signs to create a pair of shadow clones in retaliation. His clones keeping Rin and Obito busy while Kakashi went off and hid in the trees to catch his breath. He was having trouble forming hand signs for his normal jutsus and he felt clumsier than usual as he moved around. Kakashi had almost tripped over his own feet multiple times during this stupid spar.

To put it simply, Kakashi was _not_ okay. He was _dying,_ but the thought of falling asleep made Kakashi feel sick because anything was better than sleeping. Sleeping meant having dreams and that meant watching his team dying, drowning in their blood, and having their dead lifeless eyes burned into his mind.

No, sleeping was not an option anymore.

Kakashi jumped down from his hiding tree and landed on the ground when a rain of kunai was thrown at him. The second his feet touched the ground, Rin came charging at him with her own kunai. He barely managed to dodge her with a triple back somersault; which he immediately regretted when his vision went blurry.

When his vision came back, and he didn’t feel like throwing up the ration bars he had eaten earlier, he was greeted by the image of him being cornered by his two very proud looking teammates.

“We have you now, Kakashi,” Rin said, a happy grin on her lips. Her clothes were sung a bit from the fireball he had thrown at her a while ago.

“We’re finally catching up with you,” Obito said, his own grin matching Rin’s.

Kakashi didn’t bother saying anything. Instead, he moved into a fighting stance watching as the other two mimicked him and got ready to attack themselves. Kakashi reached behind him and takes his tanto out from his holster, moves chakra to the soles of his feet, takes a step forward and—blacks out.

* * *

 Her body knew what to do before she did. One-minute Rin was standing next to Obito, both ready to finally, _finally,_ win one of these rare one-against-two matches Sensei would make them have, and then the next she was kneeling next to an unconscious Kakashi. Rin could feel the panic trying to get control of her body but all her training and on-field experience kept her hands from shaking.

 “Kakashi?” Rin called out loudly to the younger boy, as she flipped him around onto his backside. She started to slap Kakashi’s cheek in hopes that he would open his eyes. “Kakashi, can you hear me?”

When Rin got no answer, she leaned over and pressed her ear to his chest. She breathed out a sigh of relief when Kakashi’s heart and breathing sounded normal.

“Is he okay?” Obito asked from where he knelt on the other side of Kakashi. His whole body was the definition of worry; his hands hovering over Kakashi, having a need to help Rin, to help _Kakashi_ , but knowing that he was little to no use at this very moment. Rin hadn’t noticed Obito following her towards the younger boy, but she wasn’t surprised. She knew that even though Obito fought with Kakashi, he cared. “What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know,” Rin answered as she focused green tinted chakra to her hands and started to scan Kakashi’s body with it. “His breathing and heartbeat are fine. He doesn’t have any physical wounds from what I can tell.”

“Chakra exhaustion?” Obito suggested.

“It looks like, but we should take him to the hospital anyways,” Rin said, biting her lip. She cut off the flow of chakra and sat Kakashi up enough for her to be able to wrap his arm around her shoulders. “Help me carry him back to Minato-sensei.”

“Yeah, okay,” Obito quickly took Kakashi’s other arm and took most of his weight as they struggled to get back on their feet.

Minato-sensei took Kakashi into his own arms and used the seal Rin knew her sensei had placed in the hospital to teleport him and Kakashi. Her and Obito whole had to wait a good minute before the blonde jounin reappeared before them, grabbed both of their arms and teleported them away from the training grounds. 

 

Rin had to deal with her teammates’ constant bickering and belittling of each other, Obito’s chronic lateness, Kakashi’s harsh bitterness towards everything in the world. She’s been dealing with those two for the past three years now and Rin was damn sure that she has rightfully earned the title of The Most Patient Kinochi in Konoha, but even _she_ had her boiling point, and right now, right now Rin was fucking _pissed_.

Rin knew that she wasn’t the quickest or the strongest on the team, but she knew she was good at what she did. Rin was proud to be a medic-nin, knowing that she could be the only thing standing between her teammates and a premature death, but that wasn’t enough, _it never seemed to be enough._

She was Rin Nohara, the female of Team 7, the medic-nin, the sweet kunoichi that could do no wrong (because everyone seemed to forget that _she_ was living through this war too. That she had seen just as much blood and gore as her teammates do, maybe, even more, considering that she was a medic-nin). Everyone, even her own _teammates_ , kept pushing her aside while they focused on Kakashi, the prodigy, and Obito, the knucklehead with great potential. She was the side character to her male counterparts’ main stories.

No more.

She’s tired of being pushed aside, and as she watches Kakashi sleep, a sense of determination so strong that she felt like she might throw up started to grow in her chest.

No more.

She’s not going to let herself get pushed aside anymore.

* * *

  _He hasn’t dreamt of the three genins in a while._

_They were coming back from a mission. It had gone incredibly well, a simple C-rank where they had had to guard a merchant’s cart all the way back to their village (and for some reason Kakashi felt incredibly relieved because it really had been a C-rank this time), and they were now heading back home. He and the genin were only a couple miles away from Konoha when they came across a small restaurant on the path._

_Kakashi hid a smile behind his mask when he heard three stomachs rumble and led them in to treat them to lunch. As he watched the three kids eat and talk amongst themselves he started to feel a sort of warmth in his chest, because his kids were just enjoying each other’s company, acting like the kids this system tried so hard to destroy._

_Kakashi tries hard to ignore that fact; tries to forget that this world takes more than it gives. Instead, Kakashi agrees to play the silly game the blonde boy made up on the spot._

* * *

 “Sleep desperation?” Obito said after the medic-nin had finished checking what was wrong with Kakashi. Minato-sensei had been pacing worryingly around the room as the medic-nin did his job—and Obito knew that it had taken his sensei everything he had to not loom over the other man and ask him millions of questions—while he and Rin took the very uncomfortable chairs next to Kakashi’s bed. Obito would never say this out loud but seeing Bakakashi laying there looking nothing like himself was causing him to feel worried about the stupid jerk.

“Sleep _deprivation_ ,” The man said, slowly repeating the word for Obito. A smile on his lips like he found the fact that Obito had said it wrong was cute. “It means your friend hasn’t been getting enough sleep. It’s usually common to see in shinobi who suffer from insomnia. On top of the chakra exhaustion, it makes perfect sense why the boy passed out.”

“But Kakashi isn’t an insomniac,” Minato-sensei said, his arms crossed to stop himself from twitching.

“Your team is quite familiar with border duty, am I right?” The medic-nin said and then continued when they all nodded to confirm. “Well we all know that border duty has its own gory tales to tell and considering how young Hatake is and what…happened to his father, this could possibly be PTSD. It is confirmed that insomnia is a symptom.”

_His dad?_ Obito thought to himself. _What about him?_

He was about to ask the medic what he had meant by that but was cut off by Minato-Sensei who asked the medic when Kakashi would be waking up. The medic-nin told them that he expected Kakashi to wake up early tomorrow morning, considering the idiot needed to catch up on sleep before he finally left. The three of them stayed there watching Kakashi’s chest rise and fall in silence until Minato-sensei rubbed his eyes harshly with the bottoms of his hands as his whole body practically sagged where he stood.

“You two should head home,” Minato-sensei said, finally looking away from Kakashi to give him and a Rin a smile. His way of trying to reassure them both. “You guys must be hungry. I’ll send a toad to get you guys when Kakashi wakes up.”

He and Rin didn’t put up much of a fight, both because the medic-nin had said that Kakashi would be fine and because they didn’t want to stress out their sensei more than he already was. They said their farewells to Minato-sensei and walked through the semi-busy hospital hallways.

“I’ll see you later, Rin,” Obito said. Usually, he would be offering to walk Rin home but Obito wasn’t in much of a cheery mood and he doubted that Rin was feeling any better.

“Bye, Obito,” Rin said, giving him a little smile and a wave before he and Rin took opposite directions to head home.

Obito kicked a random pebble that was on his way back home until it bounced out of his immediate path. He would happily say hello to whoever would greet him to be polite, but his mind seemed to have stayed back at the hospital.

Don’t get him wrong, Kakashi always got on his nerves. Obito constantly fought with the younger boy about almost everything and every time they saw each other. Kakashi was always putting him down and, yes, _maybe_ Obito was always trying to make Kakashi lose his cool because he always got a sort of pride when he managed to make Mr. “A Shinobi Doesn’t Show Their Emotions” lose his cool. Yes, they didn’t get along but…that didn’t mean Obito about _didn’t_ care Kakashi.

Every time he got angry at Kakashi, Obito couldn’t help but remember the kid that would play kick-the-can with him and Rin back when they were in the academy. Every time after they had some stupid fight, Obito always remembers the kid that had made him and Rin one of the best meals he’s ever had. He remembers the boy that was amazing in everything he did in school but never seemed to brag about it.

Every time he heard Kakashi preach about rules and regulations, he sees a tinier Kakashi wrapped in a too big green and shuriken covered scarf, proudly stating he would always protect those precious to him.

That…wasn't the Kakashi he knew now and every time he saw Kakashi he wondered whenever see _that_ Kakashi (the one he remembers with a nostalgic feeling for childhood) again.

As Obito entered his home and yelled out to his grandmother, informing her that he’s home, he can’t help but hope that whatever is happening with Kakashi right now that it won’t stop Obito from trying to salvage the beginning of the small friendship that had been killed all those years ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I do Rin some sort of justice? I really hope so because I was really worried about how I was writing her since she is literally just an empty character made up just to be a plot point. So I wanted to at least give her some character and like ambitions. Also sorry if the ending here seemed abrupt.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I feel like I should explain Kakashi's mood swings towards his dad. I just kinda imagined him obviously still loving and missing his dad (based on the fact that he had carried his tanto around with him for so long) but I also imagined him still being angry towards him about just quieting and leaving him alone with a pretty judgmental village. So I just feel like if I was in Kakashi's place I just wouldn't exactly KNOW what to feel towards Sakumo. 
> 
> Well anyways, I hope you enjoyed this!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are very much appreciated my dude! ^u^


End file.
